Aston Plaza Crypto – Purchase Dubai Real Estate With Bitcoins?

A Dubai real estate project claims to be the first major development where you can purchase real estate with bitcoin. Here’s our review of this investment opportunity.

What Is Aston Plaza & Residences?

Aston Plaza & Residences consists of two apartment buildings in Dubai. The apartment buildings are located at the Dubai Sciences Park, and include a range of studio apartments and 1 or 2 bedroom units.

Aston Plaza & Residences has been making headlines across the bitcoin community this past week for being the first major real estate project where you can purchase units in bitcoin. The units can be purchased using exclusively bitcoin, or you can buy a combination of bitcoin and fiat currencies.

So far, the developer has already sold hundreds of units in fiat currencies. The remaining 700+ units are being reserved for bitcoin holders. You can buy the apartments today here.

Apartments start at 30 BTC, or around $135,000 USD. According to the official website at AstonPlazaCrypto.com, over 370 apartments have already been sold.

Who’s Behind Aston Plaza & Residences?

The real estate development project is led by British entrepreneurs Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman.

“Being a designer for 21 years, it's a real passion of mine as the design side, and it's great to be partnering up together as well to launch this. And this is the first major global development where you can purchase in bitcoin,” Mone told said in an interview with CNBC ahead of the project’s announcement.

“Previously there’s been an apartment here and there’s been a house here and there, but never a £ 250 million development, so it’s really exciting to be involved in.”

More is best-known for founding the lingerie brand Ultimo in 1996, a subsidiary of her company MJM International. Today, she owns an interior design company called Michelle Mone Interiors. She is also a lawmaker in the UK’s upper chamber of parliament. She reached the position after being appointed by former UK Prime Minister David Cameron two years ago.

Barrowman, meanwhile, is chairman of the Knox Group of companies.

The pair insisted that they genuinely believe in the future of bitcoin as a currency and as a medium of transfer. They refuted the idea that they were using bitcoin as a “marketing gimmick” (although obviously, their plan worked regardless, because our news website doesn’t typically cover apartment buildings in the Middle East).

The Project Will Be Completed By September 2019

The studio apartments have not yet been built. The project will be completed by September 2019.

The project spans a total of 2.4 million square feet and consist of 1,000 apartments. The units will also contain a swimming complex, an outdoor cinema, a shopping mall, a children’s playground, a well-equipped gym, multiple sports courts, a private lounge for residents, and underground parking.

The units are located within 20 minutes of downtown Dubai, 10 minutes of Dubai Marina, and 25 minutes from Dubai International Airport.

You can pay for premium interior design services for your unit with bitcoin. Mone’s interior design company, Mone Interiors, is handling interior work for the units.

How To Buy An Aston Plaza & Residences Unit

The properties are currently available for purchase online at the following site: https://astonplazacrypto.com/residences/.

Transactions are being processed by BitPay, which is one of the community’s leading bitcoin processing platforms and currently provides payment gateways to Microsoft and Virgin Galactic, among others.

With BitPay, you can purchase an Aston Plaza unit in less than 10 minutes “from anywhere in the world with the speed of sending an email, “BitPay CEO Stephen Pair said in a statement earlier this week.

The units start at around 30 Bitcoin, with early investors receiving additional bonuses (just like ICOs). As mentioned above, you can also purchase interior design packages, furniture, and other bonuses using bitcoin.

A one bedroom apartment is priced at 54 bitcoin, or about $250,000, while a two bedroom apartment is priced at 80 bitcoin, or $380,000. Bitcoin users can expect to get a 15 to 20% discount on the price of the apartments. Early adopters, meanwhile, can get an extra 5% discount if they buy during the pre-launch phase.

Meanwhile, all sales prior to October 16, 2017 will be entered into a prize draw to win a one bedroom apartment.

480 apartments have already been sold in traditional currencies – although none of those apartments have been purchased with bitcoin. The remaining units will all be reserved for bitcoin holders.

Aston Plaza Crypto Conclusion

Can you imagine how someone would have reacted in 2009 if you told them they could one day buy an apartment unit in Dubai for 30 BTC?

You can learn more about this unique project at the official website here: https://astonplazacrypto.com/. Considering one third of the units have already been sold to fiat currency users, it’s hard to see this as anything but a marketing gimmick – although it certainly makes for an interesting story.